Orchitis in Adult Bulls 383 



tinued to believe that it might be so. However, he found 

 that sound males introduced from other sections, where the 

 disease was unknown, contracted the malady, and conse- 

 quently felt that there must be a local infection of some 

 kind. 



While there seemed to be no great danger to the life of 

 the patient, there was very serious loss in condition and also, 

 in all or nearly all the cases, the breeding life of the animal 

 was brought to a close. Consequently, as a rule, when the 

 disease was observed early, the animal was sent to the 

 butcher as the most economic course. Once the disease was 

 established, castration apparently proved the most direct 

 method of handling. 



There is no very clear line of demarcation clinically be- 

 tween orchitis and epididymitis. The symptoms are funda- 

 mentally alike. The tumefaction of one structure quickly 

 encroaches upon the other and the two organs blend. Com- 

 monly also the disease processes in orchitis and epididymitis 

 blend, so that one is rarely present without the other. 



Orchitis ordinarily reveals itself by a more or less pro- 

 nounced swelling of the testicle. As a general rule, the dis- 

 ease is unilateral in the bull, there being no commonly known 

 acute systemic infection which tends to involve simultane- 

 ously both the glands, as observed in the infectious cellulitis 

 of horses. When orchitis, due to infection, causes definite 

 changes in the gland itself, they usually occur very promptly, 

 with much swelling and pain. As a rule, there is loss of ap- 

 petite with elevation of temperature. The very firm envel- 

 ope or tunic of the testicle renders any inflammation of the 

 gland excessively painful. At the same time it prevents 

 prompt relief by free swelling and tends to cause destruction 

 of the tissues as a consequence of blood stasis from com- 

 pression. 



A common result of orchitis in the bull is the .formation 

 of an abscess in which the entire gland, along with the 

 epididymis, undergoes necrosis and purulent destruction. 

 In the one instance of abscessation of the testicle of the bull 

 in the college collection, the abscess has attained a diameter 



